


The Commentators Should Watch Their Backs

by HeidiJames28



Series: We're a Family First and Cricketers Second [11]
Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: Comfort, Family Feels, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:13:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25794181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeidiJames28/pseuds/HeidiJames28
Summary: Joey and Jossy take their fair share of negative abuse both online and by the commentators - here's what their family does to make it better.
Relationships: Dom Bess/Sam Curran, Eoin Morgan/Ben Stokes/Mark Wood, Jimmy Anderson/Alastair Cook, Jos Buttler/Joe Root
Series: We're a Family First and Cricketers Second [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103888
Comments: 433
Kudos: 11





	The Commentators Should Watch Their Backs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [j_obsessed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_obsessed/gifts), [Cricket_crazy28](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cricket_crazy28/gifts).



> This is for my girls:  
> Esha - thank you for listening to my rants about Jos Buttler and how amazing he is.  
> Zee - this is to hopefully cheer you up a bit about how stupid the commentators have been. 
> 
> Anyone who knows me knows I hate the commentators' mistreatment of Jos mainly (but also Joey and Jof), especially compared to players like Ollie, Ben, Jimmy, and Stuart - if you want my evidence on why I think a lot of it is unfounded ask in the comments and I can prove that it's unfair. 
> 
> In the past couple of tests (or the past year) Jos has taken a lot of flack from the commentators even though he's playing perfectly normally

Jos was fuming, his heart racing and his fists clenching. Jimmy and Ben watched on nervously as Sammy and Ollie led a shaking Joe from the room. "What happened?" Jimmy asked, wrapping an arm around Jos to try and offer some comfort. 

"The coaches had Sky on like always and they had the wonderful idea to basically slag Joe off for ten minutes," Jos spat out, his arms trembling with barely concealed rage. "It was mainly Rob Key, just kept going on and on about how shit Joey was doing and how they should replace him as captain." 

"Oh Joey," Bennie breathed out glancing past the door in the direction Joe went. "Do they not understand how hard he's been trying? We've had a problem with our openers it's not Joey's fault." 

"I'm going to kill him," Jos seethed, venom seeping into his tone, "I am going to ruin his life and make it so he never commentates again."

"Let's not do that, Jos," Jimmy muttered, tightening his arm to stop Jos moving. "Joey needs you here not in prison for murder." 

"They made him cry, Jimmy, he cried," Jos's voice was broken and Ben gasped again glancing at the door again in nervousness. "Can you go check on him, Ben? I need to have a word with a certain commentator."

Ben rushed out, chasing after Joe and Jimmy let out a sigh of relief knowing the blonde batsman was in safe hands. He turned to Jos with a sympathetic smile on his face. "If Joey cried I have no chance of stopping you but I'm coming with you, both to ensure you maintain distance and to give him a threat of my own."

Jos sent Jimmy a small smile, still seething as he finished getting dressed before stalking out of the dressing room and towards the hotel. 

\--

"Joey?" Ben cooed, dropping to his knees and running a hand soothingly through Joe's hair. Sammy and Ollie were sat on either side of the captain, hugging him tightly and humming lightly under their breaths. Joe's head fell forwards at the sound of Ben's voice, his head dropping onto Ben's shoulder as sobs wracked his body. 

"I'm a shit captain, Bennie," Joey whimpered, his voice thick with tears, catching slightly as he spoke, "it's not gonna be long before they replace me with you or Jos."

"That's not happening, Joey. Look at me," Bennie ordered, coaxing Joe to lift his head and look him in the eyes. "For a start, I don't want it. You are my captain no one else. If you think Joseph Buttler is ever going to be this test teams captain without you retiring first you are insane. He would rather quit than take your job."

"Then Broady or Jimmy," Joe argued, tears dripping down his cheeks, "or literally anyone would be better."

"Joey you have just won your fourth test in a row. You've led this team to a series win in South Africa and you will lead them to a series win against West Indies." Ben's voice was passionate as he spoke. "You drew the ashes against a test team with Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschange, if it wasn't for the rain at lords of would have won us the ashes. You put on a hundred-run partnership with me at Headingly which helped us win. You won our last test series against India with four tests." 

"You were the youngest English player to hit seven-thousand runs," Ollie butt in, continuing to list Joey's accomplishments. "You were the first overseas captain to score a double century in New Zealand. You're in the top ten highest scorers for England with the highest average in that top ten."

"But more than that, Moena," Sammy started, "you're an amazing captain. You make us all feel comfortable, you're not afraid to admit your flaws, you make all of us want to be better players and better people. You are a good person and a good cricketer. Never let anyone tell you differently."

"Yeah," Ollie cheered, "fuck Rob Key, what does his opinion matter anyway. He only played fifteen tests for England for a reason." 

Joey laughed, leaning back against the sofa and smiling when Sammy immediately cuddled up into him. Ben sat on the other side of the bowler, running a hand through his hair and smiling brightly at his captain and friend. 

"Thank you guys," Joey muttered as Ollie flicked on the TV flicking through the films. "You're the best."

"Can we watch that one?" Sammy gasped, pointing at Princess Diaries and cheering lightly when Ollie clicked it. "You deserve it, Joey, you're amazing." 

\--

Rob Key was sitting in his hotel room, re-watching his old cricketing videos when a loud banging knock sounded on his door. He was shocked, they were in lockdown so no one was meant to be coming round to see him. He swung the door open revealing an irate Jimmy Anderson and a fuming Jos Buttler.

"Oh hello lads," Rob greeted, his awkward smile slipping when the two cricketers glared at him."Is everything alright?" 

"I'm going to make this very clear for you," Jos hissed, his voice low and poisonous, "if you ever make Joey cry again because your comments I will end you. I will ruin you and no one will ever hear from you again. Am I understood?" 

"Yes," Rob eeked out. Nasser had warned him that Jos could be protective but he'd never expected to be on the receiving end of that protection. 

"I know a lot of people," Jimmy added, a bitter-sweet smirk spreading across his lips. "A lot of people owe me favours and I am not afraid to cash in and stop you from ever commentating on any cricket again." 

Rob just nodded in shock, his eyes widening. He had not been expecting this when he got back to his hotel room. "I would recommend you never tell anyone about this conversation," Jimmy let out before he dragged Jos away down the hall. 

He let out a sigh of relief, closing the door and heading back to on his bed in shock. He would definitely be telling Nasser and Athers all about this tomorrow (it's safe to say neither were shocked, they'd been on the receiving end of over-protective Jos more times than they'd care to admit). 

* * * * *

Ben was stood on guard outside the commentary office. It was late evening and Ben and Mark had snuck out of their hotel room, giggling loudly as they went. They'd avoided almost everyone, walking suspiciously down the corridors and passed the security guards. 

The ginger's eyes widened as Nasser Hussain walked towards him a smile on his lips, his eyebrows creasing when he saw the allrounder. "Ben? What are you doing down here?" 

"I lost my contact," Ben responded, his voice emotionless as he sent Nass an unimpressed stare. 

"I didn't know you wore glasses," Nass remarked, attempting to step passed Ben into the commentary box. "I left my laptop and it's got the notes for tomorrow pre-play on it."

"Why would I be trying to find my contacts if I wore glasses? I would put my glasses on, Athers," Ben said the last word with so much sass and venom that Nasser knew he was being misnamed on purpose. 

"I could help you find it if you need," Nasser offered, he wasn't sure what he'd done to annoy the ginger all-rounder but he knew he had to fix it. 

"I think it fell on the floor but I can't see it." Nasser uncomfortably dropped to his knees, glancing at the dark carpet apprehensively. He looked up at Ben before averting his eyes when he saw the firey glare being sent his way.

\--

Mark was sat in front of the computer, scrolling through his phone for the passwords. He had convinced one of the commentary minions to give him Nasser and Athers passwords so he could change them and mess around with their files.

He raised his eyebrows laughing quietly when he finally found their passwords. He typed _NasserlovesAthers_ into the bar and choked on his spit when it worked. They were like children, even his password wasn't that obviously centred around Eoin and Ben. 

Mark plugged his memory stick in, letting the files download while he changed the password to the most random set of keys he could imagine, that way no one would be able to let them back in. He then relabelled all of their files to different players and different countries so they would get confused and look foolish on-air tomorrow. 

The computer beeped loudly and he cursed, turning to check the door to make sure no one had heard him. He saw two figures through the glass and panicked slightly turning around to quickly finish before anyone found him. He downloaded over a hundred videos of Jos batting and keeping, all labelled some form of thinly veiled insult. 

He pulled out the memory stick and shut the computer down before heading to the door. Mark peered out the glass, catching Ben's eye and seeing Nasser on his knees crawling around on the floor.

\--

Ben's eyes widened when he saw Mark looking at him through the glass. "Is that it?" Ben asked, pointing at a random spot so Nasser would turn around and Mark could slip out the door and stand next to him. 

"What are you doing, Nasser?" Mark asked, pretending to walk up to the pair and greet Ben. 

"Ben lost his contact so I was just helping him find it." Nasser was embarrassed and he jumped up from the floor brushing down his trousers. 

"He doesn't wear contacts," Mark responded, throwing Bennie a bemused smile and pecking him lightly on the cheek. 

Ben didn't even look ashamed, he simple stared Nasser right in the eyes before speaking. "Oh well, guess that's why couldn't find it. Thanks, Rob." Ben dragged Mark down the hall, quickly removing them from the situation. 

"That was Nasser, why did you call him Rob?" Mark asked, pulling his hand out and showing Ben the memory stick. "I got it all done." 

"If Nasser can call him Josh all day every day I can call him Rob and Athers when I want to," Ben retorted, sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend childishly. "Good work, babe. We should get back before he realises what we've done."

"We can face time Eoin and fill him in," Mark gushed, pulling Ben faster through the halls and giggling when the tall ginger all-rounder fell over his own feet at the change in speed.

* * * * *

Sammy saw Michael Holding walk passed and he knew his time was now, he had already got four commentators in trouble today and it was time for number five. He let his eyes well, glancing around to catch Jimmy's eyes, his lower lip forming a pout. 

"What's wrong, baby boy?" Bessie cooed, kissing him gently and running a soothing hand along his cheekbone. "Who hurt you?

"No one," Sammy responded with a normal tone, portraying no negative emotion and Dom grew confused quickly, "watch this. Jimmy?" Sammy raised his voice on the last one, injecting tones of hurt and sadness." 

"What's wrong, Bubba?" Jimmy asked, rushing over to his baby and checking him over. "Who do I need to kill? What happened? Is it Bessie, do I need to kill Bessie?" 

"It was Mikey," Sammy sniffled, winking at Dom when Jimmy turned to glare at the commentator in question. "He's been mean to me all day."

Jimmy ensured Sammy was safe in Bessie's company before stalking towards Mikey and pulling him out of the room. "What was all that about?" Bessie asked, laughing as Sammy whipped his eyes and smiled cheekily at him.

"The commentators keep shitting on Jos this test so every time one of them comes near me I pretend to cry," Sammy explained, causing Bessie and the rest of the dressing room to laugh loudly. "That way Pape goes all protective papa bear and tells them off."

"Why not just tell them off yourself?" Mark asked, pulling out his phone and taking notes, "brilliant plan by the way." 

"Dad said I couldn't do anything about them myself, he never said I couldn't get Papa to do something." Sammy waggled his eyebrows at his brother. "You've gotta love a loophole." 

Jimmy walked back into the room and Sammy quickly stopped talking, sniffling again and burrowing into Bessie to show his sadness. "Don't worry, bub, they won't irritate you again."

"Thanks, Papa," Sammy responded, blowing him a wet kiss, "you're the best." 

* * * * * 

Jimmy was sat in the corner of the room, whining loudly to Ali. "He called me petulant, Alastair. Petulant, do I look petulant to you?" 

"The way you're acting right now," Stuart explained, cocking his hip and raising his eyebrows and Jimmy, "is the textbook definition of petulance." 

"At least I'm not moody," Jimmy spat back, throwing a pillow at Stuart and laughing when he hit him square in the face. 

"At least I'm not old."

"Lads," Ali groaned, cutting them off before Jimmy could retort, the captain voice still worked on his team. "Ollie and Jos will be in soon can you two please not start an argument?" Ollie and Jos were carrying the bat so the whole family was waiting in the family suite. Bessie and Sammy were curled up on a bean bag, playing top trumps and laughing to themselves Ali smiled at the sight, it was nice to know that even after an awful test, they could find comfort in each other.

Whenever someone was carrying the bat, the family would sleep in the same room and refuse to talk about the match, completely ignoring all thoughts about cricket. They would then watch movies until everyone was asleep, allowing the batsmen to forget all about their worries and struggles.

Ollie was carried in a few minutes later by Rory, his hair wet from their shower. Rory carefully laid him on the cushions, curling up around him and cooing softly in his ear. Jos was coaxed in soon after by Joe who let the wicketkeeper curl up on the other side of Ollie before spooning behind him. 

Ali clicked on the Princess Diaries (it was the only film Sammy would sit still for and his restless shifting stopped Jos being able to fall asleep comfortably) and the quiet hush from the television allowed Ollie and Jos to drift to sleep, surrounded by their family. 


End file.
